Effects of Phonological Decoding Training on Children's Word Recognition of CVC, CV, and VC Structures

Abstract

The effects of training in letter-sound correspondences and phonemic decoding (segmenting and blending skills) on three kindergartners' word recognition abilities were examined using a single-subject multiple-baseline design across behaviors and subjects. Whereas CVC pseudowords were trained, generalization to untrained CVC pseudowords, untrained CVC real words, untrained CV and VC pseudowords, and untrained CV and VC real words were assessed. Generalization occurred to all of the untrained constructions for two of the three subjects. The third subject did not show the same degree of generalization to VC pseudowords and real words; however, after three training sessions, this subject read all VC constructions with 100% accuracy. Findings are consistent with group training studies that have shown the benefits of decoding training on word recognition and spelling skills and with studies that have demonstrated the effects of generalization to less complex structures when more complex structures are trained.

Effects of phonemic awareness instruction on the encoding skills of children with severe speech impairment

“…Their performance is comparable to that of speaking children with similar instruction. 24 Maintenance measures obtained post-instruction for both Gabe and Jane indicated that generalized phonemic awareness knowledge for trained CVC pseudowords had not declined following termination of instruction. Both Gabe and Jane also showed steady progress toward criterion in their generalization of encoding skills to untrained CVC pseudo and real words.…”

“…24, 33 -34 The CVC syllable structure was used because it is the basic syllable shape for tasks involving segmentation and blending. 24 Pseudowords were chosen because (1) pseudoword decoding is a strong predictor of later reading abilities, 35 -36 and (2) use of pseudowords minimizes the influence of prior learning. The following research questions were posed:…”

“…Whereas their participants were required to speak both the stimuli and responses (decode), participants in the present study pointed to or manipulated alphabet tiles (encode). 24 Probes Three types of probes were conducted during the course of the study: baseline, daily, and maintenance (Phase II only). Prior to implementation of Phase I instruction, baseline probes of increasing length (three for Gabe; five for Larry; seven for Jane) were administered in order to establish initial levels of performance in phoneme-grapheme correspondence and encoding.…”

Desempenho de crianças com risco para dificuldade de leitura submetidas a um programa de intervenção

“…Intervention studies (18,19) showed that stimulation of letter naming and grapheme-phoneme relationship, along with the direct practice of reading of C-V-C monosyllabic non-words, result in the dissemination of trained reading skills for the reading of untrained words and pseudowords of different lengths and syllabic structures. This finding suggests that the program prepared and applied in this study also produced the widespread of the reading skill.…”

“…Following the pre-assessment, children at risk for reading disabilities were submitted to the Phonological Decoding Intervention Program developed by the researchers based on two international studies (18,19) . The program was designed to be conducted in two phases: Phase I and Phase II.…”